The Master of Contradictions
Thomas Mann and the Making of "The Magic Mountain"
Published on 6. January 2026
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-300-23374-2 (ISBN)
Description
The arresting story of how Thomas Mann wrote The Magic Mountain as a defeated Germany descended into political chaos
"A lavish work of historical analysis that doubles as a kind of psychological thriller. Mann's magnum opus is not just a novel, Jensen suggests, but a thinly veiled spiritual autobiography."-Anna Ballan, New Criterion
Like many writers of his generation, Thomas Mann (1875-1955) welcomed the outbreak of the First World War. He viewed it as a spiritual necessity, a chance to reassert German cultural dominance over Western ideas of democracy and enlightenment. Then, in 1924, he published The Magic Mountain, a massive novel that culminates in the slaughter of war and foreshadows the Nazi terror to come. One of the central achievements of modernism, The Magic Mountain bears testimony to its author's dramatic political reorientation as a defender of democracy.
This poignant book is a biography of Mann's great novel-its evolution from a short story into a two-volume masterpiece and one of the bestselling novels of the Weimar era. Deftly weaving together elements of biography, history, and literary criticism, Morten Hoi Jensen reveals how writing The Magic Mountain against a backdrop of world war, revolution, hyperinflation, and rising right-wing terror moved Mann to embrace the democratic and humanistic ideas he once scorned.
One hundred years after The Magic Mountain was first published, at a time when democratic ideas are again under threat, Jensen reveals the universality and timeliness of Mann's great novel-its still-resonant debates over democracy and tyranny, time and place, illness and death.
"A lavish work of historical analysis that doubles as a kind of psychological thriller. Mann's magnum opus is not just a novel, Jensen suggests, but a thinly veiled spiritual autobiography."-Anna Ballan, New Criterion
Like many writers of his generation, Thomas Mann (1875-1955) welcomed the outbreak of the First World War. He viewed it as a spiritual necessity, a chance to reassert German cultural dominance over Western ideas of democracy and enlightenment. Then, in 1924, he published The Magic Mountain, a massive novel that culminates in the slaughter of war and foreshadows the Nazi terror to come. One of the central achievements of modernism, The Magic Mountain bears testimony to its author's dramatic political reorientation as a defender of democracy.
This poignant book is a biography of Mann's great novel-its evolution from a short story into a two-volume masterpiece and one of the bestselling novels of the Weimar era. Deftly weaving together elements of biography, history, and literary criticism, Morten Hoi Jensen reveals how writing The Magic Mountain against a backdrop of world war, revolution, hyperinflation, and rising right-wing terror moved Mann to embrace the democratic and humanistic ideas he once scorned.
One hundred years after The Magic Mountain was first published, at a time when democratic ideas are again under threat, Jensen reveals the universality and timeliness of Mann's great novel-its still-resonant debates over democracy and tyranny, time and place, illness and death.
Reviews / Votes
"A lavish work of historical analysis that doubles as a kind of psychological thriller. Mann's magnum opus is not just a novel, Jensen suggests, but a thinly veiled spiritual autobiography."-Anna Ballan, New Criterion"A nuanced portrait . . . thoughtful [and] perceptive."-Kirkus Reviews
"Brilliant. . . . Jensen provides the best possible introduction to Mann's great book, along with a lucid portrait of Mann's character as an author."-David Mikics, Tablet
"The Master of Contradictions is many things: a biography of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, a history of the Weimar Republic, and a story about one reader's relationship to the most beguiling novel of the twentieth century. Morten Hoi Jensen writes from a place of profound feeling and deep erudition. He is the perfect guide to the novel's intricate, enchanted world; I did not want to stop exploring it with him."-Merve Emre, contributing writer, New Yorker
"The Master of Contradictions could not be a more perfect book for our times. Jensen charts Mann's progress from an enthusiastic militarist who scorned democracy to a stalwart defender of the Weimar Republic with sensitivity, intelligence, and a sharp eye for poetic detail."-Phil Klay, author of Missionaries
"Meticulously detailed, with delicious bites of gossip, Jensen gives the reader a portrait of Mann at his finest and most human. Tender and personal, brash and piercing, finely researched and a pleasure to read."- Samantha Rose Hill, author of Hannah Arendt
"An absolutely gripping read!"-Tobias Boes, author of A Reader's Guide to Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus"
"Morten Hoi Jensen's study of The Magic Mountain reads like a mystery story, inspiring fascination and head-shaking admiration, as it distills beautifully an immense range of books and information."-Stanley Corngold, author of The Mind in Exile: Thomas Mann in Princeton
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 218 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
394 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-23374-2 (9780300233742)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Morten Hoi Jensen is a Danish-American writer and critic. He is the author of A Difficult Death: The Life and Work of Jens Peter Jacobsen and has contributed to numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, Commonweal, and Liberties.